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drb

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Posts posted by drb

  1. Judith Jamison to retire as AAADC Artistic Director June, 2011

    This came in today's e-mail, and since it is a "patron mail" rather than a press release or announcement I am not sure where to post it.

    February 28,2008

    Dear Friends,

    I want you to be among the first to learn of my decision to step aside in June 2011 after serving as Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for more than 20 years. Since 1965 when I joined as a dancer, I have been passionately committed to this company, and I will remain fully active as Artistic Director for the next three years. I will then become Artistic Director Emerita and serve as an ambassador for the company for many more years to come.

    As we approach our 50th anniversary, it seems appropriate to consider how best to advance the artistic direction of the organization under new leadership. I have held this company in trust for Alvin Ailey, always feeling that he had placed in my hands not a mere company but a living, breathing spirit. It is now time for me to pass on the great gift that I have held, making sure that the next hands to receive it are strong and capable.

    I will work closely with Associate Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya and the Board of Trustees to ensure a smooth transition. Beginning this process now, allows us the time to be thoughtful and deliberate.

    Your support and participation are vital. I am confident that the AAADT will continue to bring great joy and pleasure to so many, and I urge you to give your full support during our anniversary period, for it will matter greatly to Ailey’s continued success.

    Sincerely,

    [signed Judith Jamison]

    Artistic Director

    Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

    I would like to thank Ms. Jamison for her remarkable service to the company, to the nation, to the world, and to Art.

  2. New York City Center Opening Night

    Thursday, February 21, 2008

    Up front, I really dislike Schoenberg's great masterpiece Pierrot Lunaire (also, I really dislike commedia dell'arte), and have never made myself suffer through a sufficient hearing to know the texts of each of the 21 songs. Also I really disliked Nureyev's performance of it (probably unfair to choreographer Tetley). Alexei Ratmansky's version opened tonight's program. It was recognizably the work of the creator of NYCB's Russian Seasons, and included a significant amount of ballet choreography for Diana Vishneva (in fact the only ballet of the evening), especially moments of powerful allegro. Igor Kolb, the Pierrot, not only whipped off fast multiple pirouettes (of course!), but delivered a frequently intense emotional performance. However, although there certainly was some story, I could not understand the (well sung by Elena Sommer) songs, even though the program did give a slight bit of guidance, dividing the songs into three groups of seven. Two Mariinsky men also performed, but I think their parts were less specific. Early they were all dressed similarly, 'though after the first third Ms. Vishneva got rid of her skull-cap and looked and danced like herself. The backdrop looked pointless, on the left a bunch of flowers with a hovering woman, on the right a mirror image. Still, because of the music (or my lack of comprehension -- but I do love some Berg and lots of Webern...) and the unknown text, not a very enjoyable experience.

    Act two consisted of three pieces by Moses Pendleton, grouped under the title F(or) L(ove) O(f) W(omen). The first was a black light piece for Ms. Vishneva and two women from the Mariinsky. At first patterns were made by one arm from each dancer. Gradually other limbs were added, but we never got to see the rest of each ballerina. All in blue, many engaging, and of course amusing, images were created; my favorite being when they suddenly morphed into three Swans. Another, when they created a single ballerina. The second found a raked square covered by cloth. Gradually it was pulled off and there was Diana on a bed of mirrors. She danced with her reflection, magnificently. There was one moment when she reminded of the novice in Robbins's The Cage, crouching toward us, triumphantly (yet, as in the Robbins, more than that), but over herself rather than her "ex". This was my favorite part of the program. Third, she's in a gown with strings of beads cascading down to near the floor from her head dress. She turns clockwise, varying speeds to vary the flow of the beads.

    Act three was Dwight Rhoden's Three Point Turn. This was an abstract story of the changes that occur during romantic relationships. Ms. Vishneva's partner was the illustrious Desmond Richardson. The soloist men and women from the Mariinsky all appeared in this work: In blue, Ekaterina Ivannikova and Mikhail Lobukhin; in green, Maria Shevyakova and Alexander Sergeev. Ms. Shevyakova, a tall dancer with rather "Kirov" extensions, looked as if she might be fascinating to watch in Balanchine. Both Diana and Desmond generated plenty of heat, but perhaps the actual choreography might have been more adventurous.

    Ms. Vishneva had much more work to do in this 2 hour, 30 minute program than she'd have had in any of the classics. Although she seemed to genuinely enjoy much of what she did (and was more than gracious with Mr. Rhoden and, especially, Mr. Pendleton), I hope she can make it through all the performances that still face her here, in Russia, and in Chicago, sans injury.

  3. Thursday, February 14

    Tonight's program would have seemed planned for Valentine's Day, but the theme, Matters of the Heart, was seriously flawed.

    The evening began cheerily enough with Raymonda Variations led by the company's Heart Ashley Bouder, partnered by Andrew Veyette in place of Ben Millepied, due to "illness and injury." Mr. Veyette had significantly greater stamina in the role than he showed last year, perhaps in part by more careful pacing, so that he was able to whip off many fast multiple turns at the end. But of course this ballet is woman, the woman, Assoluta Bouder. Less mannered this year, playing with the steps not so much to dazzle as to show still more how Mr. Balanchine had enriched the Glazounov score, breathing extra time into the notes so that she could grace them with extra balances, sighs, and grace. The star-studded list of soloists, Savannah Lowery, fireball Tiler Peck, Sara A. Mearns, Rebecca Krohn (good to see her active again, just a year ago she seemed to be dancing every night), all did well by their solos, but Teresa Reichlen the one who danced on a grand ballerina scale.

    Next came a pair, the first Balanchine's Hans Christian Anderson entertainment The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Megan Fairchild and Daniel Ulbricht were the flammable doll and tin soldier. Mr. Ulbricht supplied the grand elevation expected, while keeping in perfect rigid precision, as Ms. Fairchild seduced with her theme of diziness. After her first spinning led her to need his support, she leaned back finding her beating heart. Later he reached into his pocket and gave her his heart. But a draft set her spinning out of control and into the fire. All left to find for him was the heart he'd given her, lieing by the fireplace. He picked it up, not broken, and placed it once again into its tin prison. Well-danced, and well-played.

    The second of the middle pair, Wheeldon's The Nightingale and the Rose, also featured a heart, this that of a bird who had to drain hers of blood in order to create a red rose for a heartless lout who needed it to please the whim of a heartless teen queen. It didn't. The only love was that of the bird, gloriously played by Wendy Whelan. The lout and teen queen were also played to perfection, by Tyler Angle and Sara A. Mearns.

    Ten PM was approaching, with work in store for most the next day, and Valentine matters still left to complete, with depression from the last two tragedies to overcome, and so there was quite an exodus. With a small and tired audience left, the evening's substantial fare was served at 10:08 PM.

    There were four debuts in Balanchine's Robert Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze, and a crucial substitution. From the casting sheets in the Lobby, Maria Kowroski is out for the rest of the season, save for one Oltremare where a change has yet to be posted. Thus the only Muse who has been able to attain Suzanne Farrell's level in this ballet was missing. We love Darci Kistler, and thank her for saving this performance, but in fairness, this part has not been in her range for well over a decade. The debuts were of Janie Taylor and Abi Stafford, representing other aspects of Clara Schumann, while Stephen Hanna took on the role of Schumann the composer. The main debut was Sara A. Mearns, taking over Kyra Nichol's portrayal of Clara as wife and mother. This is my favorite of all Kyra roles. I believe that she raised the role of Clara the Wife to the level of Farrell's Clara the Muse, and that playing opposite Kowroski's Muse, the two had made this ballet just about my favorite at NYCB.

    Ms. Mearns, dancing with Charles Askegard's Schumann the husband, was from the start a dancing whirlwind of emotion, relating with her frenetic husband; at first there was happiness in the relationship, but soon his complex mix of mental problems became dominant. Stephen Hanna danced well opposite Muse Darci Kistler. Abi Stafford danced beautifully with Nilas Martins, usually reflecting lighter moments of the marriage, while beloved Janie of-the-dancing-hair Taylor hypnotized, as Jared Angle frequently turned her in attitude and we saw the archtype of beauty that so attracted the composer. Around the time, perhaps just before, in the real-life story where loving father Robert had, in a moment of madness slapped one of his girls, we see Clara alone on stage. It is the scene where Kyra had given a sense that each down-reaching dip of her hand was to caress and comfort one of her children. While Sara did not give quite this sense, her emotional reading was a summa of her whirlwind of a performance that had preceded. She knew that her battle to hold Robert to his family and to his art was lost, it was a dance of resignation and loss, yet it was, as dance, a moment of triumph and beauty. Of yielding, yet human courage. He (Askegard) faces his demons, in this instance his paranoia, as his enemies the scribes, critics, appear to torment him. He has a last visit with the aspects of his life as all the dancers appear, together and in groups and pairs. Sara makes one last effort, knowing it can only be a farewell, to hold him to reality, but he slips from her last grasp and slowly walks into the sea to protect his children from his madness, by drowning himself.

    The performance could not be viewed as a triumph, for there was no balance between Clara the Wife and Clara the Muse. However it was a triumphant debut for Ms. Mearns, reminding us of her dramatic power as Odette/Odile. Her energy and focus were awesome. All the more amazing as it was her third ballet of the long evening. And one of 13 lead performances scheduled for this week. Is anyone still claiming that Blockhead programming leads to spreading out the work load of dancers? Indeed, each of the new dancers gave stirring performances. Especially, welcome back Janie Taylor. It was a blessing to see you.

    As for programming, it was an abject failure. Those who remained at that late hour for this long and quiet ballet gave it a tepid reception.

  4. From Nina Ananiashvili, quoted in today's Links:

    Her message for young dancers:

    I think we do this for people, because life has become so computerized, we have forgotten how to talk to one other. We do this for the future, for our kids. Ballet brings back human love and human life — we need to have contact with each other during these crazy times. If you see good theater, good art, you don’t want go out and kill people, you know? If you get inspired, you want to tell other people, to share it. Once, a postman told me he used to love opera the most, but then he saw me dancing on television, and he began to really like ballet. That is why I do this job—to make people happy. There are times after a performance when fans will come to me and say that they feel lucky in their lifetime to have seen me dance. This is wonderful. It reminds me that as a dancer, you really don’t live for nothing. You live for something.
  5. ...Morgan threatened to overshadow the afternoon's honoree, taking to Bournonville as if to born to it. The pas does have its gooey moments which were subdued by her intelligent timing. But seeing the younger dancers, his students, gave the afternoon a look towards the many years ahead which will have Hubbe, the teacher's, imprint on NYCB, and also a preview of the work awaiting him in Copenhagen. It was good to have that, to relieve the sense of loss.

    Indeed. Kathryn's Flower Festival in Genzano brought the young (well over a quarter century ago) Lis Jeppesen to mind. Both Ms. Morgan and Ms. Jeppesen had a look that at first suggested soubrette, yet both were much more than that. There was no cute or coy layered over their natural, youthful beauty. Both women danced with extraordinary delicacy (it is hard to recall any dancer who could out-delicate Lis). When considering Kathryn's relative lack of Bournonville training, all the more a true tribute to Mr. Hubbe's teaching. Also, it was a very impressive first major role for Mr. Prottas. I hope there is some way that this becomes more than a one-time-only, it is surely more interesting choreography than much that is already in place for next season, not to mention just a sheer joy to watch.

    As Wendy Whelan began the concluding sunburst in Apollo, her emotion was intense and probably not without tears as her face momentarily seemed to touch Mr. Hubbe. During the fourth of six curtains, Nicolaj grabbed Ms. Whelan as the three Muses were exiting to leave him solo, and held her as the two instead exited together. The curtains with Yvonne Borree were even more emotional. In one of many curtains he kissed her directly (kissing away her tears?), then cradled her head in his arms as they exited together. This is a man who appreciates his partners, and that should bode well for the ballerinas of the Royal Danish Ballet. Indeed. This is a man. Who will be the next Apollo?

    The dinner party after was covered, remarkably well, in the following society column. Some photos will surely interest NYCB fans, including one of Damian and Heather:

    http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/4043

  6. Friday, Feb. 8, 2008

    I'd hoped one of BT's Tudor experts would have posted by now, but rather than let this fine evening pass without comment...

    This program began with a Suite of eight of the 12 Chopin dances that Jose Limon made in 1958 as a tribute to the Polish people. In the post performance panel discussion we were told that Mr. Limon's company had just had a disaster in Paris, with London barely better, but were then triumphant in Poland. Suite from Mazurkas could not help but remind of the Robbins Chopin ballets that were to follow, especially Dances at a Gathering. It would be unfair to make comparisons with the Robbins masterwork, especially in this partial form and without NYCB dancers. However these dancers did a fine job, especially, for me, in the Opus 30, No. 4 duet with Evan Swanson and Elena Zahlmann (what fine legato phrasing she has).

    Thus I was optimistic when I saw that Ms. Zahlmann was to play Caroline--the bride of Convenience--in Antony Tudor's Jardin aux Lilas (Chausson, 1936). Of course I did see this back in the Sallie Wilson era at ABT, and Ms. Wilson staged this performance (as well as the evening's other Tudor ballets) for New York Theatre Ballet. We were later told by Ms. Zahlmann that Sallie Wilson had spent 45 minutes of coaching on one single jump, and the next day still came back to it! The intense preparation showed in a performance of great dramatic clarity. While this is a "story ballet" it did not looked acted at all, but rather lived by its dancers, the steps alive with humanity. Caroline's young Lover, Kyle Coffman, was quite believable, and you could feel their empty pain when he gave her the bouquet of lilacs at the end. The Man She Must Marry, Terence Duncan, displayed a more mature sadness, yet just as profound, and his mistress, Julie-Ann Taylor's hurt was palpable.

    Then came two unfamiliar Tudors, both more different from Jardin than the few other Tudor ballets that I have seen. Little Improvisations (Schumann, 1953) was a set of duets for a young couple, tonight Rie Ogura and Mitchell Kilby. This carefree romp (who would have expected such from Mr. Psych?) was based on playing with a rectangular piece of cloth. Among many things, the cloth was turned into a baby by Ms. Ogura! If ABT ever were to want a little showpiece for a pair of young dancers, this would be a real audience-pleaser!

    The final piece was Tudor's Judgment of Paris (Kurt Weill, 1938). Terence Duncan is a customer ("Client") in a Parisian bar (or perhaps a brothel?). His waiter Kyle Coffman brings him a bottle of Cristal, which he begins to drink in a Marie Antoinette glass (proof this is not a classy joint). Three hookers (not in Mr. Balanchine's sense!) sit at another table and take turns trying to seduce him, or at least encourage him to drink. In order, Juno (Christina Paolucci), Venus (an hilariously well-endowed Barbie, Elena Zahlmann), and Minerva (played as over-the-hill, all aches and pains, by AD Diana Byer). Forced to choose, he barely beckons toward Barbie, then passes out drunk and is robbed by the foresome.

    In the discussion that followed we were told that Sallie Wilson was indisposed, her place taken courageously (still in her Barbie outfit) by Ms. Zahlmann. Much of the questioning concerned what we did not get to see in the Limon, and whether there might be a future mounting of Tudor's Romeo and Juliet. I was especially interested in Ms. Zahlmann's comments on dancing Tudor, how she felt intensely human dancing his work onstage, unlike any other choreography, and, in response to a question from a young dancer in the audience, that she felt this experience would stay with her and inform the way she would dance other chroeography.

    Thanks to those BT'ers whose discussion of this event encouraged us to attend it. I learned that Antony Tudor was a much more diverse creative artist than I'd realized.

  7. drb, you are such a wit that I can't tell whether your reference to Wheeldon's "Rocco Variations" is simply a typo or some sly allusion to yesterday's raid by the authorities on the Gambino family.

    Thank you, Farrell Fan. I assure you that I'm purely witless, and have corrected the typo. Is there a Witless Protection Program?

  8. Thursday, Feb 7, 2008

    Megan Fairchild and Benjamin Millepied were the leads in tonight's opener, Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fee". While they danced very well together (admittedly Mr. Millepied is not yet fully back to his old technical level), the partnering fine and Ms. Fairchild continuing to show some of her new level of complexity, and some delightful lightness, there was a certain lack of story. But. As the end neared, from the moment she denied him her hand, and two corps women pulled him back, away from her, and the stage cleared for their final PdD, the story happened. This heartbreaking duet of eternal separation, of a future of loneliness, as Stravinsky meditated on Tschaikovsky's None But the Lonely Heart, brought an unending sensation of chills, it was both intense and deeply moving. Brava, Bravo, and thank you. Faye Arthurs and Alina Dronova were the beautiful soloists, and I was happy to see my favorite Apprentice, Garnetta Gonzalez, in the corps.

    After the intermission, Ballet-Master-In-Chief Martins' The Chairman Dances began as Kaitlyn Gilliland led out the Red Brigade (the eight tall women), followed by the Purple Brigade of eight smaller women. Mrs. Mao was danced brilliantly by Abi Stafford, in blue and white, with red shoes.

    Then followed the new dance by Christopher Wheeldon, Rococo Variations, to Tschaikovsky's score (Fred Zlotkin, the orchestra's First Cello was the soloist, Paul Mann was the evening's conductor). After Sara A. Mearns was joined by her partner Adrian Danchig-Waring (who has danced frequently with Mr. Wheeldon's company), and quickly by the other pair, Sterling Hyltin and Giovanni Villalobos, the two couples began dancing in mirror-images to one another. Eventually the couples assumed individuality. Mostly there were duets. The first one of extended length was for Hyltin/Villalobos. Ms. Hyltin was very vivacious, and Mr. Villalobos both as a soloist and a partner may have well been the biggest news of this ballet. Toward the end came the most extended duet for Mearns/D-W. This one seemed more serious, with a tinge of the tragic, and even an Odette/Siegfried moment. As the ballet concluded the two couples were, as early on, dancing the same steps. But not in mirror, as both couples now faced in the same direction. The 20 minute ballet was very enthusiastically received.

    The program concluded with Mr. Balanchine's Stars and Stripes. Jennifer Tinsley-Williams led the First Campaign (the baton part), and Savannah Lowery, the Second. Daniel Ulbricht supplied the flash for the Third, but after his magnificent Prodigal Son I want to see him in more dimensional roles too... Ashley Bouder was ON, which means total joy. But so was Liberty Bell(e)'s Capitan, Stephen Hanna. He was terrific, and not only in the audience's eyes: when Ms. Bouder had the chance she shot a congratulatory smile at him that would have even thrilled Baryshnikov!

    An evening that began with sublime sorrow concluded with divine joy.

  9. Looks like Ratmansky is coming over to NYCB to fill the vacant Choreographer in Residence position:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/arts/dan...amp;oref=slogin

    Today the Bolshoi Theater issued a statement regarding this news.

    http://www.cultradio.ru/doc.html?id=162872&cid=44

    Their press attache Yekaterina Novikova states:

    It has been known for some time that Alexei Ratmansky is negotiating with NYCB. He wishes to remain with BT [bolshoi Theater] solely as a choreographer, with no administrative duties. He is not leaving BT to become an administrator with any other theater. He is simply an artist who wishes to be free. He will remain as chief guest choreographer.

    Alexei Ratmansky has made very great progress as AD of the BT.

    The statement goes on to list his choregraphic successes, and takes note of his triumphs with the BT in Paris and London. Then she discusses BT's future:

    BT General Director Anatoly Iksanov will try to preserve continuity with tradition and with Alexei Ratmansky's innovations. We are pleased that Alexei Ratmansky is with the BT team. His contract should be completed later this year. Ahead is his production, this summer, of Flames of Paris.

    They plan to consider a wide range of candidates for his position.

  10. Guest Artists

    ...

    Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg of London’s Royal Ballet will perform Other Dances on Friday, June 6...

    Alina Cojocaru sustained a significant injury ten days ago:

    Alina Cojocaru, has had to pull out of five performances of Chroma, the contemporary ballet by Wayne McGregor, because of a neck injury.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...8/nopera128.xml

    However, the June 6 performance is still listed on Mr. Kobborg's site.

  11. ... Mr Ratmansky received an offer from the leading American company NYCB, and, as soon as he can, will become its chief guest choreographer - ie, responsible for regularly putting on his own ballets, but not run the company's daily operation.

    ...

    Well, this is great news for New York! I see that a new ballet from Mr. Ratmansky is listed on NYCB's Spring program: May 29, 31, June 3, 12. But I hope a way is found to keep The Bolshoi on course.

  12. So far I've not seen a review in the local papers of Mr. Ulbricht's Prodigal Son, yet many of us seem to have found it a very special event. I found an early mention of him (by Harris Green) as one of 25 dancers to watch in Dance Magazine, exactly seven years ago:

    Ballet has a budding superstar in Daniel Ulbricht, a 17-year-old student at the School of American Ballet. At five feet five and one-half inches--he scrupulously stresses the "one-half"--Ulbricht is a remarkably compact package of burgeoning pyrotechnics and innate musicality. In February 1999, while on tour with Les Jeunes Dancers, a troupe from his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida, he dropped by SAB to take class as a visitor. He doesn't recall doing anything out of the ordinary, but New York City Ballet principal Peter Boal, who teaches at the school, says, "All our jaws dropped open when we saw how well prepared he was." (Ulbricht was a product of the Judith Lee Johnson Studio of Dance and a student of Javier DuBroq.) He first dazzled NYCB subscribers last winter with his springy splits in the jester pas de trois in Peter Martins's Sleeping Beauty. SAB's spring workshop found him dominating the fourth pas de trois of Balanchine's Danses Concertantes and in command of the men's regiment in Stars and Stripes. "Just to have fun onstage" is his goal. His already marked concern for formal discipline should guarantee joy for audiences as well.

    That particular issue also "discovered" a couple of other locals: Marcelo Gomes (by Gus Solomons) and Adam Hendrickson (by Clive Barnes, who compared him to a young Jean Babilee).

  13. For my Russian homework, I have translated today's Izvestiya interview with Alexey Ratmansky.

    ...

    Izvestiya Jan 29 2008

    Headline:

    "Today the problem of leaking talent is over."

    ...

    Q: People say, you will soon be leaving the Bolshoi Theatre.

    A: My contract with the Bolshoi ends in a year. I will stop being director, but I hope I will continue to mount ballets. This is what I want to do.

    1. Surely an A+, a million thanks, delibes!

    2. Fascinating, the headline writer's choice. But it is Izvestiya...

    3. Very strange, I wonder if the Bolshoi will reconsider. To let the world's premiere living choreographer go, the man who has developed such talent, who went to such heroic extremes to bring in Ivan Vasiliev, who has brought the company back to #1. Perhaps there may come a position in NYC(B)?

    In any case, thank you, Mr. Ratmansky, and you too, Delibes!

  14. Ms. Osipova appeared on the US cable channel Russia Today a few days ago, accepting her award as Best Female Dancer of 2007 during the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards at Covent Garden. An excerpt from Russia Today's website:

    National Dance Awards are the only professional awards in the UK, dedicated specifically to dance. They are presented by the dance section of the Critics' Circle, which brings together more than 50 dance writers.... The Bolshoi was recognised as the best dance company, its dancer Ivan Vasilyev received the Spotlight Award for Classical Male Artist, while Natalya Osipova got the Best Female Dancer prize.

    For the full story and a link to the video:

    http://www.russiatoday.ru/entertainment/news/20029

  15. Sunday, January 27, 2008

    A Son is Born

    Prodigal Son, the middle ballet on this afternoon's program, offered debuts by Daniel Ulbricht and Teresa Reichlen in the two lead roles. Soon after his entrance the rebellious boy jumps toward the fence in front of his family's house. It was the right day to be sitting at orchestra level, for that leap was so high, and so fierce, that it was a veritable anthem honoring Mikhail Baryshnikov's birthday, he being the greatest Prodigal I ever had the honor to witness. One could feel, even hear, the audience's collective gasp. Mr. Ulbricht danced with limitless ferocity, as if a slave unbound from the rigors of some archaic patriarchy. Until reality caught up with him, as he was seduced by that towering image of Woman, debutante Teresa Reichlen. While, of course, it will still take some doing to match the brilliantly drawn portrayal that Maria Kowroski has developed, it was a fine beginning for Tess, whose glamor, beauty and stage-filling charisma is ideal for this role. Honored by five (from that notoriously dead Sunday matinee audience!) curtain calls, the fourth a screaming, cheering, stomping one for Mr. Ulbricht, his was a major triumph. Yes, those fabulous leaps, those pirouettes whirling right down into the floor (toward Hades?), great expressiveness, were manifest throughout his performance. This ballet is alive again, not that it was ever dead, but alive as it once was with Misha.

    The program began with Square Dance, danced by Megan Fairchild (whew!, not with the change that was posted in the lobby) and Nikolaj Hubbe. Two weeks to go for this dancer, it is a shame that he danced so infrequently during much of his tenure at City Ballet. For what a partner he is for Megan. You could see them relating with their eyes, her reflecting some of the subtle arm ornamentations in his port de bras, how he seemed to draw her out of herself and into the music, as she added a new dimension to her dancing. He, still a virtuoso: this noble prince, a royal dancer unlike any other man at NYCB.

    A number of cast changes from last week featured in the closing ballet, The Four Seasons. In Winter Sean Suozzi and Christian Tworzyanski flanked Sterling Hyltin in Robbins' delightful take on Ashton. In Spring, Jared Angle was the new partner of Sara A. Mearns, who continued her exploration of the Farrell style (the years... how few of today's happily young audience will see the allusions, appreciate the difficulty of her task). Rebecca Krohn and Amar Ramasar, another debut, brought a needed dollop of youthful enthusiasm to the sweltering Summer. A terrific Antonio Carmena, replacing last week's Daniel Ulbricht (who was, so obviously and brilliantly, otherwise engaged today), was joined by regulars Ashley Bouder (dancing so purely today, the Plisetskaya leap so clean, so easy a display of pure beauty) and Ben Millepied (despite a little slip just before his multiple turns, this time he inserted three hops, and that made all the difference to the cheering audience).

    But this was Daniel Ulbricht's day. The Prodigal Son has returned.

  16. Friday, January 18

    Tonight's program offered three substantial ballets, each also of substantial length. First up was Mr. B's Square Dance, with Andrew Veyette partnering Megan Fairchild, who replaced Abi Stafford. It was good to see Ms. Fairchild displaying a bit of appropriate gravitas, and also dancing with a nice flow in this killer of a role. The partnering went well with Mr. Veyette, who also danced very well. The audience received this performance with quite significant enthusiasm, including a pair of curtain calls for the lead couple. By the way, the posting boards at the State Theater were peppered with casting changes, to the degree that the two did not always agree.

    Next up was Balanchine's Prodigal Sun, with soon to depart Damian Woetzel, my favorite in this part since Baryshnikov, partnered by the charismatic Maria Kowroski. Maria started out just being her beautiful self, gradually powering up her considerable erotic dimension, so as not to frighten the novice boy at the beginning. A very nicely worked out characterization. Looking very bloodied, fortunately father Jonathan Stafford took poor Damian back. The duo earned four curtain calls!

    The Robbins/Verdi Four Seasons returned after a three year absence to close the program. Sterling Hyltin replaced Megan Fairchild in the Ashton-like Winter. Antonio Carmena and Adam Hendrickson supplied some high voltage support as Ms. Hyltin romped along with a terrific shivering corps. All three Juliets from this season appeared, as she was joined by Erica Pereira and Kathryn Morgan in the corps. It would be splendid to see the young-Darci-like Sterling in some real Ashton: she certainly made a point of the early triple display of the bottom of her toe-shoe, an Ashton signature of course.

    Next the ballet's aesthetic summit, Spring, as created on the young Kyra Nichols. Tonight's debutante was Sara A. Mearns. She was a dream in this Farrellesque movement, dancing on a grand scale, yet at times lighter than a feather; aethereal, yet already putting the stamp of her musicality on the role. Such ravishing arabesques, even playing with off-balances a bit. What a fountain of youth she is for her partner Philip Neal, dancing with her (as in their already near legendary Diamonds) as if a full decade younger. He danced with great joy and virtuosity. Together, for me, the high point of the evening. Tyler Angle, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Austin Laurent, and Giovanni Villalobos were right on synch with their virtuosic/hilarious out-of-synch quartet. After seeing this, the cygnets in Swan Lake will never seem the same... The Farrellish nature of this movement was enhanced by the great presence of Kaitlyn Gilliland, who opens and closes it.

    The Fokine-like Summer, opened by the majestic Briana Shepherd, featured the hot, in both ways, Rachel Rutherford and Stephen Hanna.

    And then came the spectacular Bolshoi (of, say, Lavrosky, not Grigorovich) Fall. Ashley Bouder dominated with her Patty McBride. Our Assoluta, dancing for joy, I feel even surpasses that legend. Of course with Mr. Woetzel no longer dancing the Baryshnikov role, it must by definition be miscast. Ben Millepied wisely did not try the hops during his final pirouettes. The Puck/Jester-like character was ideal for Daniel Ulbricht, perhaps the best I've yet seen in the part. All four seasons came out for the rousing finale. A program not to be missed.

  17. DRB, with all due respect, I beleive that Darla Hoover, another extraordinary teacher, was also very much involved with Erica's training at BAE, and deserves acknowledgement.

    Mr. Patrelle, through his company, has the ability to give them opportunities to perform, as well as developing dancers in class, but I agree that it deserves noting that there are and have been many wonderful teachers at Ballet Academy East who've developed a number of dancers there. And it's where Lourdes Lopez cut her teeth administratively.

    Living in a neighborhood where we can often see Mr. Patrelle's Company, and having had a student at BAE, I know that a rich learning experience is available there: just look at the current faculty list and you'll find many familiar names from the city's big companies, and others with significant credentials too:

    http://www.baenyc.com/faculty.asp

    Specifically, in Ms. Pereira's case she had the opportunity to learn the role of Nikiya directly from guest teacher Amanda McKerrow, who carries Bayadere's leading role directly from Natasha Makarova (this good fortune for Erica was a featured story in Dance Magazine). As you read the list of star dancers who have worked with Mr. Patrelle you may also get an idea of the quality of dancers that students get an opportunity to perform with. Not knowing Ms. Pereira, I could not make a list of those who taught and those who danced with her. But surely Darla Hoover's one among them.

  18. ...What of the paternal Capulet slap that reverberated through the pages of the New York Times last year? Has it been toned down at all?

    Actually, Darci's slap of Romeo was a lot louder than Jock's of Juliet. Perhaps cowardly back-stabbing murder is worse a crime than love. Mr. Soto does not look happy with this part of his acting assignment.

  19. Sunday, January 13, 2008

    The Dancer of Love

    The paucity of posts on this thread says it all, or almost, about the Ballet-Master-in-Chief Peter Martins remake of the Claire Danes/Leonardo Di Caprio film Romeo + Juliet. Yes, the movie even had the red plus:

    http://www.amazon.com/William-Shakespeares...9645&sr=1-3

    However, there was the lure of last year's chemistry between Erica Pereira and Allen Peiffer that said go see them again. In the interim there had been last month's remarkable Dew Drop, a great choreographic leap forward.

    We first meet Juliet in her Chambers with Nurse Gwyneth Muller (a big role in this production, and so fully realized by this dancer). Upon meeting her fiance Erica turns and dances away, not in any fear, she dances a little-girl-skipping, telling us more about Juliet being a pre-teen innocent, and of the evils of forcing children into marriage, than could be told in reams of verse and prose. Every moment we can admire Ms. Pereira's acting, but somehow it doesn't seem ever to come from a script or through artifice. Her extraordinary arms and hands have already been well noted; hinting at Makarova's, that deep connection directly to somewhere in the middle of her back. Erica Pereira's connection may extend a bit inward, to the heart.

    So much has already been written last season, including by me, of this dancer's debut; I just looked back at SZ's post on Erica's Juliet. If you missed it, I suggest you check it out. She can tell you more than I can. So I won't go through all the story and how the dancers danced. However, I would say that as the program went along, the corps seemed intensely into it. Having just read NYCB's Kyle Froman's book In the Wings, I understand that the corps is very aware of the principals' performances. QED.

    Erica and Allen come upon each other quite naturally at the Ball. As she faces him, she dances a sigh, one of delight, an innocent's surprise. Ms. Pereira can dance a sigh, and one with the just right nuances too. They dance to each other with the warmth and dimension that simply does compare to such recent pairs as Ferri/Bocca and Vishneva/Malakhov: always on, always deep, always right. And that is all the more so in the Balcony Scene. Choregraphic issues aside, they are there, swept along by that powerful score. Here, and everywhere, Erica does seem swept along by the music. It is as if the floor is merely there as a reference point to keep the audience from getting dizzy. She is dancing above, or beyond, it, in the rarefied atmosphere of music. Mr. Peiffer followed up his splendid partnering with a superbly acted letter scene, his infatuation transformed, as if some of his Juliet's airy movement had placed a cushion of lightness beneath his feet.

    Plot happens, and on to their awakening in the bedroom. Much has been said of how this scene ignores the complexity of a young bride's sleeping with the murderer of her cousin. When Erica awakes, every bit of it is on her face and in her movement. Not by Shakespeare's word or plot. It was in Prokofiev, and through the magic filter of her heart the music's story passed on to us: this young woman who dances with her heart as well as on her toes. Nothing shallow here, tragedy right from the soul needs no histrionics.

    And so it goes and ends. The audience is quite demonstrative. Even three calls after the curtain goes down. There were cheers. You know who was bowing when those came roaring.

    I didn't happen to see if her teacher Francis Patrelle was there today, although I did see him at her City Ballet Dew Drop debut. I gather from posts last season that he discovered her nearly a decade ago. Much of her training was at Ballet Academy East. She danced her first Dew Drop for his company (the one that puts on the Yorkville Nutcracker every December). And she's had the chance to dance/learn Odette and Nikiya there, and Balanchine too. There are always those teachers we the public don't know about. They give us such gifts. I want to thank Mr. Patrelle for this gift, this Dancer of Love, Erica Pereira.

  20. ...And I believe that the music to the Cendrillon ballet was by Baron Schell.

    Yes, Boris Fitinof-Schell. The ballet featured Legnani's first performance of the 32 fouettes; Mme. K. played one of the two step sisters. Later she took the role of Cinderella, being the first "Russian" (really Polish) to master these turns. If one can believe Wikipedia, a bit of the Baron's music is preserved in the Corsaire PdD.

    You can click on some great pix at:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_(Fitinhof-Schell)

  21. Thursday, January 10, 2008

    Bouder and the debutantes; Whelan and Evans forever.

    Not sure how we're to post rep reviews this year, but I couldn't bear to use one of those commercial theme titles beloved by City Ballet's marketeers. Having missed a couple weeks due to that Bug that seems to have bit the city, but finally sans the noisy nose cacophony that would drive nearby balletomanes crazy, and legally no longer posing a health risk, I ventured weakly home to the State Theater.

    First up, Ballo della Regina, led as three years ago by Ashley Bouder and Ben Millepied. Also dating from that time, Ana Sophia Scheller, while the quartet was filled out by three debutantes, in order of appearance, Ashley Laracey, Erica Pereira and Kathryn Morgan.

    The quartet. first out was Ashley Laracey, whose cheery dancing quickly showed she wasn't just cast for sharing a name with Ms. Bouder. (In fact, neither was Ashley Bouder, who doesn't really share a name with her teacher and role originator Linda Merrill (known to us as Merrill Ashley).) As Ana Sophia Scheller entered, tippy-toed, she rose-jumped-floated into a grand jete that must have been the Platonic Ideal of that step, almost claiming by itself her ultimate right to the ballet's lead role. Ms. Pereira and Ms. Morgan often danced together as the stage left pair. They are so totally different in configuration, one a wispy spirit with a touch of Bouder, the other a beauty with a taste of Mearns. Both share that you can't take your eyes off her magic. Later in the ballet the four are dancing coltishly through the corps: has there been such a colt as Ms. Pereira since Ashley Bouder--or even Darci Kistler?

    While Merrill Ashley danced this, her role, in a world of mathematical purity, geometric grandeur, Ashley Bouder reigns in a world of power calmed by sudden unexpected moments of rubato. How does she find time for these breaths of peace: passion matured by lyricism? A couple of Bouder moments: early on she does her Plizetskaya head-kicker Kitri jete that seems twice the speed of the great Maya! Later Ms. Bouder completed her sequence of single and double fouettes with a triple pirouette, so fast yet its ease and perfection made it not a trick, it was just music.

    Ben Millepied was a fine partner, and danced with clarity and elevation, and with a sense of fun. Of course not with quite his partner's brio, that would be impossible until Fate pairs her with Ivan Vasiliev on some Elysian stage, but darn good.

    As the ballet nears its conclusion there is its signature movement. One can never forget the thrill as Merrill Ashley brought down that raised leg in a staccato zip-zip-zip-zapp to a kneeling placement. Ballet most mightily vertical. Partnered by Ben, the present-day Ashley somehow showed us that this movement is also horizontal. It happens so quickly, but I think she made this about an opening up of the upper torso as well.

    A pause, then Christopher Wheeldon's Liturgy, starring Wendy Whelan and Albert Evans. Every time I see this there is somehow more. Perhaps, partly from having seen his Morphoses season. This duet to music of Arvo Part does have its formal beauty. There is a bit, not so much as in those later works, of floor work. Floor work is so much easier to see at the State Theater than at City Center. While one of course applauds City Center's long-term confidence in and support of Morphoses with its multi-year assurance of future seasons, I wish he could bring his company home to the State. As time passes each partner's movement more-and-more mirrors that of the other. Their moves become the same, the music begins its fade, and still the same, and the music ceases to sound, and still the same, and the lights fade away, and still the same. Harmony in eternis. Once assured that it will be forever, the audience bursts into prolonged applause. Numerous curtain calls, for simply great dancing. Mr. Wheeldon, please come home. Here is where you really did it.

    Already feeling a little tired, and not motivated to stay for the next choreographer ('though wish I could have seen the eight debuts!), health won out over valor. But that first half hour certainly gave me my money's worth. After all, Wendy and Albert are still dancing.

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